The RPS Bargain Bucket: Spectacular Things

Share this:

Some of the best games from the last few years are on sale this weekend. No matter what your tastes, I reckon you’ll find a deal that’ll grab your attention in this week’s bucket. At these prices I’d say that it’s got to be worth trying something you might not think you’d be interested in, you might be surprised. If nothing takes your fancy here, be sure to check SavyGamer.co.uk for constant news on the best deals in gaming.

Blackwell Bundle – £6.50/€8.04/$9.99
All four of Dave “Wadjet Eye” Gilbert’s Blackwell adventure games to date, bundled up for cheap. Here’s wot John thought of The Blackwell Convergence:

You could argue the game is too easy. I would not. I think instead the solutions to the puzzles are pleasingly intuitive, and remain satisfying to have worked out, despite not having had to spend time fretting over them. The use of Rosa’s computer, and its primitive search engine, provides solutions for many, and the prompts put in place may not be subtle, but never feel patronising. And the application of Joey’s ghostly ways – being able to walk through walls and doors, but not being able to move anything heavier than a paperclip – is used sparingly and rewardingly.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution – £5.84
This registers on Steam, but you might struggle to buy this from outside of the UK. At this price, I hope all you holdouts give this a try now. It’s not perfect, there’s a couple of significant missteps, but as a whole this is a highly enjoyable game that is somewhat true to the spirit of the original. John said this:

Despite its obvious visual console shackles, this is a game that remembers what PC games were once all about, and honours them. It’s a refreshing reminder of what games can be in the current swamp of six-hour follow-em-up shooters, and stands shoulders, chest and waist above. When games get close to the glory of Looking Glass, our expectations can rise extremely high. That Deus Ex: Human Revolution meets so many of them is a remarkable feat.

1000 Amps, AirMech, Dead Pixels, LaserCat, The Ship & The Void – £3.33/€4.12/$5.12 at time of writing.
All except Dead Pixels & LaserCat register on Steam, and all except The Ship register on Desura.
I reckon this is the strongest Indie Royale bundle in a while, although that could be because it’s got a couple of games I was championing while I still worked for them in it. There’s John’s favourite, 1000 Amps. That weirdo Russian game that I love more than I understand, The Void. Then there’s multiplayer murder ’em up The Ship, which hopefully might be getting a sequel depending on what the new owners of the ip, Blazing Griffin, have in mind. AirMech, Dead Pixels & LaserCat I’ve not played, but all look like fun times.

For me, the genius of Paradox’ best grand strategy titles has always been that they don’t tell you what to do or how to win. Instead, they give you the tools to find your own way through history and let you live with the consequences. When the consequences are so human they mean all the much more and this is probably the most human strategy game I’ve ever played. If it doesn’t wind up being among my very favourite games of the year, spectacular things will occur in the next ten months.

105 Comments

Ha just bought the paradox pack, bloody good deal that one couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw it. Did have issues putting an american address with my real card but it seemed to have worked well. Well if in three days i go to jail then we know.

It’s important to note that the Paradox deal on Amazon, once you buy it, comes with a $23 coupon for Europa Universalis 3: Chronicles (which is regularly $30) and another $23 coupon for Hearts of Iron 3: Complete (which is also regularly $30). I already own Victoria 2, Crusader Kings 2, and Magicka, but I’d been looking to pick up EU3 and HoI3, too — and this was the perfect opportunity. Gave my CK2 Steam key out to a friend, and l’ll try Sword of the Stars too, but the $46 savings on EU3 and HoI3 were the real dealbreaker.

– my promo credits were mailed to me 2 days after i bought the Amazon bundle
– i couldn’t activate Europa Universalis 3: Chronicles with the key supplied by Amazon (but it did allow me to register with Paradox)

I spent all last night watching this guy’s brilliant youtube beginner guide for CK2 and was really looking forward to getting stuck in now that I had a clue what to do. Very nearly bought it last night on steam for £30, thankfully I checked savy gamer before the purchase.

Had to make up a US address, but the game is dling right now. And yes, I got the 2 discount coupons too.

bloody good deal that one couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw it.

Second that.
Considering CKII is £30 normally, you can’t argue with around £10 for it plus SotS 2 even though I already own SotS Complete, Magicka & The Stars Are Left DLC on Steam.
Perfect timing for a 4 day weekend too.

Steam will not provide extra giftable copies of games you already own.
All keys are for your personal use only.

Remember, folks, Humble Bundles don’t technically allow you to give away the extras, just because they come in two formats. But since it’s pay what you want, there’s really no excuse to not just buy the friend you would have given it to a copy for a pittance.

Would love to pick up that Paradox Pack (not just for CK2, but for the Magicka DLC as well), but I’m just not willing to risk the fake address shenanigans. It’s digital download, so I do hope they open it up to non-US people eventually.

It’s not your past transactions you should be worried about, it’s the future actions of Amazon when they finally decide (or are pushed) to act on this. If they decide to revoke your games you won’t have any comeback on it. This deal has been openly discussed on the Paradox forums, and if Paradox know about this loophole then other publishers do to.

If you are talking worst case scenario: You could get charged with fraud.
Which is what you are committing when you supply a fake address. Possibly putting your Steam account at risk in the process. Sure, it is not very likely to come as far as all that and it is easily worth the risk.
And yet I still feel too uncomfortable to do it. I ought not have to commit shenanigans to get a good deal that others could get without any of that. The software industry once again fails to reward the good behaviour of its customers while those that do break the rules have it easy.

no love for the Bundle in a Box? its minimum price is now $0.99 and even if it does contain your eleventh copy of “Time Gentlemen, Please” and “Gemini Rue”, you can still give those away and be absolutely delighted by the rest of the games. please do. http://www.bundle-in-a-box.com

(and yes I know, it was in the Bucket last week. but it was three times as expensive then. so there.)

I’m sorry, this doesn’t reflect on you as a person–I’m grumpy because it’s sunny and I have to stay inside and mark exam papers–but “No love for..?” has to be one of the most annoying phrases I’ve ever encountered, and if I could, I would enforce some kind of punishment for its use. Lines, perhaps, just to be oldschool.

Agreed, it is really awfully sad that this wasn’t listed or at least edited into here. Even if Ben/Dan and Time Please have already been whored out too much, you can still scoop Gemini Rue and The Shivah for cheap, and 1893 is a pretty well-polished text adventure, and The Sea Will Claim Everything looks really interesting and lovingly crafted.

They’ve barely got over 4,000 sales, with two days to go. Friggin’ shame.

Could someone indicate what state Sword of the Stars II is in at this point after all of the nearly weekly patches? I know there was some disappointment with the initial release but I have seen a ton of updates in the Steam news feed…is it worth playing at this point? Thanks in advance.

I cannot answer that directly, since I haven’t dared to play it yet. but the patches still need patches (meta-patching? patchception?), so I guess there’s still something not quite right. still, it’s good to see someone trying to turn this trainwreck around and salvage what can be salvaged.

I downloaded it too, haven’t play it yet but it must be better now then when it lauched? right? maybe? Anyway its probably the most patched game ever on Steam or yet the most patched game i’v ever seen at any rate.

SOTS2 is nearing what the devs have called ‘all clear’ which is when the game is in a state they would have wanted it at launch. ‘

It has finally reached the point where it’s very playable, the patching is weekly (which can lead to hot fixes the following day) and focusing on polish, the AI, bug squashing and turn/screen transition speeds.

It’s getting regular updates and very much playable if you’re so inclined.

I’m waiting for UI improvements that’s going to happen this month or so but it seems to be “working” for many people now and even when you disregard the rabid fanboys the forum seems to be in a hopeful mood.

Personally I’m not getting anywhere near it until I hear the ui is better, but then again I was burned at the launch so I’m still butthurt about it.

There has been a fair bit of work done on the UI in those. If you’re wanting it massively overhauled or changed completely, I don’t think that’s ever going to happen from what I’ve seen said, but it’s definitely better then it was!

It’s actually quite playable now, and I reckon it’s probably worth £6. I’d say that it’s not as well rounded as the first game (also on sale), but strangely, despite all its flaws… I find I don’t want to go back.

If you don’t own the first one, I’d suggest picking that up – it’s £3.74, it’s a finished game and I think it’s one of the best 4x space strategy games around (particularly if you’re into the turn based strategic / real time tactical thing, which I am). If you’ve played the original one to death and hunger for new options, I’ve actually managed to get quite a bit of enjoyment from the sequel. I don’t appreciate the devs releasing a completely crippled game as a ‘retail release’ (it wasn’t even feature complete until recently), but you can’t really fault their continuing support.

Additionally: I wouldn’t pay any attention to the metacritic scores. The original scores only 75% because it too was a bit of a shambles on release. In its final, complete state I think it’s one of the finest examples of the genre. The sequel scores an utterly disastrous 44% (!) which it probably deserved at release but certainly doesn’t now.

The Paradox Pack is excellent value, and if I didn’t already own Magicka and its DLC and hadn’t picked up Crusader Kings 2 for about £6 when Gamestop Impulse had it on sale a couple of weeks ago, I…well, actually I stil wouldn’t buy it, because I can’t quite believe that using my credit card with a false billing address wouldn’t come back to bite me. Why is that CK2’s been on sale in the US repeatedly, but I haven’t seen a single decent international sale for it yet aside from the Gamestop one, which was limited to 500 copies?

Robinson’s Requiem and Deus are/were fantastic games. Well worth a play if you’ve never tried them. That said, they really do suffer from their age, as far as interface and controls. I keep asking, whenever these games come up, why has no-one remade these games or given us a modern equivalent?

RR and Deus: They’re unique, and represent a fascinating and terribly under-explored concept. Unfortunately, they’ve aged terribly – Requiem was made in an age of ultra-pixelly blobs and awful mouse-only UIs, while Deus was made in an age of fairly garish and primitive 3D textures/animations etc. that unfortunately is just past the point of being pleasingly minimalist. They’re also very … I can’t think of the word. Not “linear” exactly, but there’s a sort of puzzle game element to them, in that if you want to finish, you’ve got to do exactly what the designers thought of. They’re maddeningly fussy and punishing with it, too – almost everything can and probably will kill you. Although you can keep playing ever after amputating an arm, for a laugh.

I’d like to recommend them but I can’t without reservation – I first came to them about five years ago, and just couldn’t get much out of them. But if you’re interested in the idea of a realistic and very fussy and demanding survival sim, they’re worth a look for sheer novelty value if nothing else.

Wind Surf Willy was a budget thing I played on the amiga. The idea was a bit like those old Playstation snowboarding games – race along the water doing elaborate stunts to impress the judges (who gasp entertainingly if you do a really good one). I could never really get anywhere with it, but then I was only a kid at the time.

Ishar 1 and 3 are old first person squad based RPGs that I saw popping up all the time in old amiga magazines. Amiga Power rated the third as rather dull, if I recall. I never got the impression they were much more than generic 90s goblin touching sims, but never played them myself.

The Paradox pack is, comfortably, two years worth of gaming for $12.50.

In other words, the industry is still firmly in the “let’s base our prices on the idea that everyone will horde hundreds of games they’ll never play” sales model. I wonder how much longer it will be until that particular bubble bursts? I suspect the ensuing correction is going to be pretty violent.

That’s why 6 month old books don’t cost $1. You simply don’t see the kind of sales we’re seeing right now in games in any other medium. MP3 albums aren’t discounted at 90% off three months after release, but that’s exactly what’s happening with CK2 here.

“MP3 albums aren’t discounted at 90% off three months after release, but that’s exactly what’s happening with CK2 here.”
games and music don’t compare:

– one can listen to hundreds of mp3s per day, but games have to compete for our attention

– music doesn’t get outdated as fast as games do:
— games from the 90s will scare away most younger people for lack of user friendliness.
— even recent games like Civilization IV: Colonization get obsolete so fast i can’t even run it on my PC.

– MP3 is a pretty universal standard. whereas your PC games won’t run on a smartphone or console.

The cost of books has nothing to do with any manufacturing costs. This is why e-books often cost as much or even more than their printed versions.

In the US, paperback books that aren’t sold within a certain period are often destroyed, and their covers returned to the manufacturer for a full refund. The worth of the actual ink and paper is virtually nothing.

If a publisher WANTED to sell 6-month old books for 75% off, there’s no particular reason they couldn’t do so.

I’m not sure in what way it would burst, anyway. If everyone wakes up tomorrow and says “OK, no more buying games until I’ve finished the ones I’ve got”, that still doesn’t mean it’s going to make more business sense to devalue them less rapidly.

The comparison to, say, MP3s is pretty specious, because all that’s happened to music in the last few decades has been stylistic change—if you want to think of it gamewise, any MP3 (or CD) you buy today, even if of a recording from thirty years ago, is a flawless port to modern hardware that will just work and sound quality-wise up to the capability of your hardware*. Games have had technical change too: Outcast isn’t (just) less valuable because styles of what people want to play has changed; it’s straight-up technically inferior and awkward to get working**.

Maybe one day game technical development will truly bottom out (it’s getting close, graphically), we’ll somehow magically reach a nirvana of perfect backwards compatability, and that will no longer apply. But for now it’s not a reasonable comparison.

* Pedant’s corner: much beyond that, mind, recording technology of the day starts to hurt it.
** If GOG’s copy works for you, great; substitute something else from the post-DOSBox Win9X early-3D era that gets a bit huffy about new cards and drivers and NT-era Windows.

“I’m not sure in what way it would burst, anyway. If everyone wakes up tomorrow and says “OK, no more buying games until I’ve finished the ones I’ve got”, ”

Then the industry will collapse, full stop. That’s my point, actually. In order to recover, they’ll have to get back to a point where a game’s unit sales can be much smaller than they are now and still turn a profit. Wargame publishers (despite the whining of the hording masses) already know something about this.

The more nightmarish alternative, of course, is for everyone to just start making games that are actually only worth $5.

“The more nightmarish alternative, of course, is for everyone to just start making games that are actually only worth $5.”
I think that’s the direction things are going, if they’re not there already to a substantial degree*. The market is definitely leaning towards cheaply developed mobile/social casual games right now. I think we’re also increasingly moving towards a model of game development where making games doesn’t actually support the developers – the rise of the self-funded indie developer sounds great, but most of those games won’t make enough to pay for their development at current sales prices. After pumping out a few games that lose money, you end up going back to the day job. Game making turns into a hobby done in one’s spare time.

*Obviously the game industry isn’t monolithic, and whatever happens other elements of the industry will still be there, but greatly diminished.

The ‘burst’ will come when developers realise that only a small number of games are likely to make their development cost back – and that realisation is more than just dawning for many developers.

We’ve seen MASSIVE growth in the number of people able to create and ‘sell’ games in the last few years – AppStores and other DD systems make it practical for someone to make a game at home and sell it

BUT

The sheer number of people doing this means it’s near impossible to get attention for your games – so it’s not going to make a living for most of those people – and thus they’ll move on and do other things (either working for someone who has the ability to promote their work or something different altogether).

We’re probably near the peak of this phase of gaming now – there are truly great games coming out and barely being noticed/being deeply discounted (or even underpriced from new) thus ensuring more games won’t come from that source.

The bubble here isn’t a financial one – it’s in terms of people thinking they can make a living from making games when they can’t – well, unless they get really, really lucky and in most cases they’ll run out of money before that happens.

“The ‘burst’ will come when developers realise that only a small number of games are likely to make their development cost back ”
Developers have always known this (or should have, anyways) since it’s always been true (though the number may be smaller these days). The difference now is a combination of pricing deflation and social/viral dynamics that amplify the attention given to popular games exacerbating the difference between a successful and unsuccessful game and more importantly, decreasingly reliance on the publisher model (where publishers bore much of the financial risk). There’s never been a time where game developers were as likely to get burned as right now.

deep discounts existed in the days before digital distribution (allthough on a lesser scale, as the number of copies for sale was limited). i still have €5 game CDs and DVDs i never even played (e.g. Thief). of course that didn’t stop me from buying new games.

in his post above, Shuck says:
“decreasingly reliance on the publisher model (where publishers bore much of the financial risk).”

i guess brick & mortar shops used to bear some of that risk too.

i find myself unwilling to pay full price at launch nowadays (from AAA devs anyway, as i have 4 indie games on preorder).
not because of deep discounts though.
but because most AAA games are uninspired, unoriginal, buggy,…

The last time the bubble burst I had tons of Atari 2600 games to play that were bought on the cheap. Of course, most of the companies that made them couldn’t afford to make games or pay their employees anymore by that point, but whatever.

I’ve certainly hit the wall – I have 100 unplayed games in my collection, and so my game buying has almost completely stopped. I still buy the occasional game, but I don’t spend more than $5 a month, and I’m still buying games faster than I play them. Current pricing practices are not sustainable.

I’ve actually reached the point where I’m buying great games on 75%-off sales not just faster than I can play them, but faster than new great games are coming out. I’m clearing out my wishlist faster than I’m filling it, and I’ve dropped below 20 games just today.

The paradox pack probably appeals to a limited group of gamers anyways, so they’re probably trying for more exposure and outside sales. Trying to become less niche I guess. Personally, my employment as well as employment for many is an unstable situation, so I horde games when I have a job and play them when I can’t buy them. It’s weird how stable (relatively) this habit has become. To be fair, most of my games are indie because you get far more bang for your buck.

I’ve basically stopped buying games. I really wanted alpha centauri, and really want DE3, Limbo and CK2… (and pathways/gateways or whatever it’s called..) but I have/will skip them even at sub $5 prices. I still haven’t played amnesia that i got at sub $5 prices, or Civ4, BG2, or Bastion, or a number of other games. No games are getting bought even at $1 until I at least finish BG1 and a few other games.

Heck, i got Bastion free off GMG by trading in some other games that I didn’t have time to play…

This so called “bubble” burst for me some time ago. I don’t bother buying games when they’re released (think the last one I did was Left 4 Dead 4 years ago which was a pre-order on Amazon so it was cheaper than buying on Steam at the time anyway).
Steam sales & the plethora of Indie bundles have changed my buying habits over the last few years to the extent where even though I want to buy Arma 2 Combined Ops (£25 currently on Steam) so I can play Day Z, I’m holding out for the impending Steam summer sale where it’ll be 50% off if not more.

It probably helps that I don’t have the attention span of a budgie so can restrain the need to play the latest release just because a marketing machine says I need to.

Nah, I don’t buy this argument. CKII is a really fantastic game. I bought it for $9.99. Should it be “valued” at $9.99? How do you answer that? An individual copy doesn’t cost them anything. If they’ve already recouped their development costs than any amount is almost pure profit. It doesn’t matter how much an individual copy is; it matters how much money they make. Game sales are now based on volume, not value/copy.

We’ve seen many, many reports that a game priced at 1/5 makes much more than 5 times when sold at the regular price. I wonder how much Spiderweb Software made when he finally switched to super cheap processing. Probably more than he’d ever made before.

If there’s any “bubble” to burst, it will be on the profitability of mediocre games. In the past I’d pick them up for $5 or $10. Now I only play really high quality games (and I get them for $5 – $15).

The number of gamers (even those interested in more niche products) keeps going up and up. The logical effect would be that prices on copies go down and down.

I missed the Wing Commander series first time around but I heard they were fantastic. All nostalgia aside are they still worth playing? If so, which ones are the best?
Give me your knowledge good people of RPS!

Personally I never rated them half as good as the x-wing series. But different people have different tastes. I’d imagine the ones with 2D sprites haven’t aged well at all. But sometimes early 3d ages worse.

Don’t know if it’s a typo, but it happens to be UK only. At least, the price is in pounds and this American has been having a merry time trying to register on the site to buy it. Of course, it could just be because their website is shite.

I believe the 25% off discount on pre-orders for Endless Space will end tomorrow (Sunday), to coincide with the Beta version which comes out Monday. It’s currently $22.49 USD on Steam with the discount.

Pre-orders get you access to the Alpha (and Monday, the Beta) game. I’ve been playing the Alpha and it’s amazingly solid for an Alpha build. The Beta on Monday will unlock Multiplayer and finalize the factions. I still have some concerns about there being enough depth for replayability as in MOO2 and GalCiv2 (the closest models to this game), but they’re on the right track.

Unlike some places it helps that Amazon does a pretty good job of pushing their sales to the top and making sure you notice them and (as far as I’ve seen) stick to rolling over on Sunday in the US so it’s a lot easier to just check than some sites.

my point is: companies that are legally entitled to revenues from copyright, aren’t necessarily ethically entitled.

(how many artists have been ripped off by those who held their copyright? also, many masterworks have been kept under lock for decades. sometimes artists aren’t even allowed to finish the job: cf. Terry Gilliam’s “Lost in La Mancha”)

As a buyer, I don’t fully accept this situation I’d much more happily spend money that gets split between the seller, the curent owner, and the creator. Yes, I know this is a bit far fetched. But I’d happily pay more for the privilege of spending money on old game creators.

Doesn’t bother me. I gather that there is some communication and banter between some of the higher bidders. No reason not to combine charitable deeds with
Having fun or competition. Also every penny counts as they say.

Humble Bundle automatically wins for having both Psychonauts and Amnesia which are both spectacular games. They are surprisingly similar too being that they are psychological. Amnesia is downright terrifying and Psychonauts can be downright upsetting when it wants to be. I don’t think I even need to explain the awesomeness that is Bastion.